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Abstract:

A method for assembling a disk drive includes placing disks on a spindle,
and pivoting a turbulence reduction plate to a position between the disks
on the spindle. The turbulence reduction plate is placed on a pivot
associated with the housing and then rotated into position. The
turbulence reduction plate is attached to the housing and a cover is
placed onto the housing to form a disk enclosure which also encloses the
turbulence reduction plate.

Claims:

1. A method for assembling a disk drive comprising:placing disks on a
spindle; andpivoting a turbulence reduction plate to a position between
the disks on the spindle.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein pivoting a turbulence reduction plate to
a position between the disks on the spindle includes placing the
turbulence reduction plate on a pivot associated with the housing.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein pivoting a turbulence reduction plate to
a position between the disks on the spindle includes partially attaching
the turbulence plate to a mounting area of a housing for the disk drive.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein pivoting a turbulence reduction plate to
a position between the disks on the spindle includes pivotally attaching
the turbulence plate to a first mounting opening of a housing for the
disk drive.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising attaching the turbulence
reduction plate to a second mounting opening of the housing.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein attaching the turbulence reduction plate
to a second mounting opening of the housing includes;aligning an opening
in the turbulence reduction plate with the second mounting opening;
andplacing a fastener through the opening in the turbulence plate and the
second mounting opening.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising attaching the turbulence
reduction plate to a housing for the disk drive.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein attaching the turbulence plate to a
housing for the disk drive includes placing fasteners through openings in
the turbulence reduction plate and into corresponding mounting openings
in the housing.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the mounting openings of the housing are
inside an outer periphery of the housing.

10. The method of claim 7 further comprising enclosing the disks and the
turbulence reduction plate.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein enclosing the disks and the turbulence
reduction plate includes placing a cover onto the housing.

12. A disk drive comprising:a housing;a spindle attached to the housing;a
first disk attached to the spindle;a second disk attached to the
spindle;a set of mounting openings placed in the housing near the
periphery of the first and second disks as attached to the spindle;a
pivot attached to the housing;a turbulence reduction plate positioned
between the first disk and the second disk, the turbulence reduction
plate attached to the set of mounting openings, the turbulence reduction
plate positioned on the pivot;a cover attached to the housing.

13. The disk drive of claim 12 wherein the housing and the cover form a
clam shell head disk enclosure.

14. The disk drive of claim 12 wherein the pivot is a fastener within a
mounting area associated with the housing.

15. The disk drive of claim 12 wherein the turbulence mounting plate is
shaped to rotate to a position between the disks without touching the
first disk, the second disk or the spindle.

16. A method for assembling a disk drive comprising:placing a first disk
onto a spindle of a disk drive;placing a second disk onto the spindle of
the disk drive, the second disk spaced from the first disk;clamping the
first disk and the second disk to the spindle;placing a turbulence
reduction plate on a pivot associated with the housing;rotating the
turbulence reduction plate into a position between the first disk and the
second disk on the spindle.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the pivot is outside the periphery of
the first disk and second disk.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising;attaching the turbulence
reduction plate to the housing; andattaching a cover to the housing.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising placing a seal between the
cover and the housing.

Description:

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001]Various embodiments described herein relate to apparatus, systems,
and methods associated with a disk drive having a turbulence reduction
plate.

BACKGROUND

[0002]A disk drive is an information storage device. A disk drive includes
one or more disks clamped to a rotating spindle, and at least one head
for reading information representing data from and/or writing data to the
surfaces of each disk. Disk drives also include an actuator utilizing
linear or rotary motion for positioning transducing head(s) over selected
data tracks on the disk(s). A rotary actuator couples a slider, on which
a transducing head is attached or integrally formed, to a pivot point
that allows the transducing head to sweep across a surface of a rotating
disk. The rotary actuator is driven by a voice coil motor. Storing data
includes writing information representing data to portions of tracks on a
disk. Data retrieval includes reading the information representing data
from the portion of the track on which the information representing data
was stored.

[0003]There is a constant competitive effort in the industry to improve
various performance parameters associated with disk drives. One
performance parameter manufacturers are constantly trying to increase is
the speed at which information from the disk drive can be retrieved and
transformed back into the data written to the drive. This is many times
referred to as the access speed. One way to increase the access speed is
to increase the rate a disk or disks on a spindle spins within a drive.
The faster the spindle spins the disk drive, the faster the information
representing data can be read off a track on the disk. Currently,
spindles which carry a disk or disk drive may spin at 5400 to 7200
revolutions per minute ("RPM"). The relative motion between the disks and
the housing can produce a turbulent wind within the housing at these
speeds as well as at the higher speeds, which are anticipated in future
drives. The turbulent wind within a disk drive can excite various
components within the disk drive. Some of the components that may become
excited or resonate include the disks or the actuator arm. Of course
other hardware may also resonate at various frequencies. When the disk or
the actuator arm or other hardware resonates or is excited, the ability
to keep a transducing head over a particular track may become difficult
which in turn makes it difficult to read from or write to a track
reliably. This problem is exacerbated because current disk drives have a
high number of tracks per inch. As a result, the width of a track is very
small so even small movements due to vibrations can result in unreliable
read operations and write operations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0004]The invention is pointed out with particularity in the appended
claims. However, a more complete understanding of the present invention
may be derived by referring to the detailed description when considered
in connection with the figures, wherein like reference numbers refer to
similar items throughout the figures and:

[0005]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a disk drive with a cover removed
before the turbulence reduction plate is placed between the disks,
according to an example embodiment described herein.

[0006]FIG. 2 is a top view of a disk drive with a cover removed before the
turbulence reduction plate is placed between the disks, according to an
example embodiment described herein.

[0007]FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a disk drive after the turbulence
reduction plate is placed between the disks, according to an example
embodiment described herein.

[0008]FIG. 4 is a top view of a disk drive after the turbulence reduction
plate is placed between the disks, according to an example embodiment
described herein.

[0009]FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a disk drive after the turbulence
reduction plate is placed between the disks and with the cover about to
be installed, according to an example embodiment described herein.

[0010]FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a method for assembling a disk drive,
according to an example embodiment.

[0011]FIG. 7 is a flow chart of a method for assembling a disk drive,
according to an example embodiment.

[0012]FIG. 8 is a partial cross section view of the assembled disk drive,
according to an example embodiment.

[0013]The description set out herein illustrates the various embodiments
of the invention and such description is not intended to be construed as
limiting in any manner.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0014]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a disk drive 100 with a housing
cover removed before a turbulence reduction plate 200 is placed between a
first disk 120 and a second disk 120', and FIG. 2 is a top view of a disk
drive 100 with a cover removed before the turbulence reduction plate 200
is placed between the first disk 120 and the second disk 120', according
to an example embodiment described herein. Now referring to both FIGS. 1
and 2, the disk drive 100 will be further detailed. The disk drive 100
includes a housing 102 including a housing base 104 and a housing cover
106 (shown in FIG. 5). The housing base 104 illustrated is a base
casting, but in other embodiments a housing base 104 can comprise
separate components assembled prior to, or during assembly of the disk
drive 100. The first disk 120 and the second disk 120' are attached to a
hub or spindle 122 that is rotated by a spindle motor. The disk 120 and
the disk 120' can be attached to the hub or spindle 122 by a clamp 121.
The disk may be rotated at a constant or varying rate ranging from less
than 3,600 to more than 15,000 revolutions per minute. Higher rotational
speeds are contemplated in the future. The spindle motor is connected
with the housing base 104. Each of the disks 120, 120' can be made of a
light aluminum alloy, ceramic/glass or other suitable substrate, with
magnetizable material deposited on one or both sides of each of the disks
120, 120'. The magnetic layer includes small domains of magnetization for
storing data transferred through a transducing head 146. The transducing
head 146 includes a magnetic transducer adapted to read data from and
write data to the disk 120. In other embodiments, the transducing head
146 includes a separate read element and write element. For example, the
separate read element can be a magneto-resistive head, also known as a MR
head. It will be understood that multiple head 146 configurations can be
used.

[0015]A rotary actuator 130 is pivotally mounted to the housing base 104
by a bearing 132 and sweeps an arc between an inner diameter (ID) of the
disk 120 and a ramp 150 positioned near an outer diameter (OD) of the
disks 120, 120'. Attached to the housing 104 is at least one magnet 113
that forms at least a portion of the stationary portion of a voice coil
motor (VCM) 112. A voice coil 134 is mounted to the rotary actuator 130
and positioned in an air gap of the VCM 112. The rotary actuator 130
pivots about the bearing 132 when current is passed through the voice
coil 134 and pivots in an opposite direction when the current is
reversed, allowing for control of the position of the actuator 130 and
the attached transducing head 146 with respect to the disk 120. The VCM
112 is coupled with a servo system that uses positioning data read by the
transducing head 146 from one of the surfaces of the disks 120, 120' to
determine the position of the transducing head 146 with respect to one of
a plurality of tracks on one of the disks 120, 120'. The servo system
determines an appropriate current to drive through the voice coil 134,
and drives the current through the voice coil 134 using a current driver
and associated circuitry. It should be noted that in some transducing
head includes two separate elements. One element is for reading
information representing data and reading positional information or servo
information. This element is known as a read element. The other element,
in these embodiments, is for writing information representing data and is
known as a write element. One example of such a transducing head is a
magnetoresistive (MR) transducing head.

[0016]As mentioned previously, the disks 120, 120' include a plurality of
tracks on each disk surface. In an embedded type servo disk drive, the
servo wedges traverse the plurality of tracks. The plurality of tracks,
in some embodiments, may be arranged as a set of substantially concentric
circles. Data is stored in fixed sectors along a track between the
embedded servo wedges. The tracks on the disk 120, 120' each include a
plurality of data sectors. The tracks toward the inside of the disks 120,
120' are not as long as the tracks toward the periphery of the disks 120,
120'. As a result, the tracks toward the inside of the disks 120, 120'
can not hold as many data sectors as the tracks toward the periphery of
the disk 120. Tracks that are capable of holding the same number of data
sectors may be grouped into x data zones. The base 104 includes several
threaded mounting openings 201, 202, 203 which receive a fastener. The
turbulence reduction plate 200 also includes corresponding tabs that
include openings 211, 212, 213. A fastener is placed through each of the
openings 211, 212, 213 and threaded into the mounting openings 201, 202,
203 in the base 104 to mount the turbulence reduction plate 200. As shown
in FIG. 2, one of the base 104 or the turbulence reduction plate 200
includes a pivot pin 204. The turbulence reduction plate 200 pivots on
the pivot pin 204 and is rotated in the direction of the arrow 300 shown
in FIG. 1. In an alternative embodiment, a fastener 221 is placed through
the opening 211 and into the opening 201. The fastener 221 is partially
tightened so that the turbulence reduction plate 200 is capable of
pivoting about the fastener 221. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the
turbulence reduction plate has not been rotated and is substantially
completely outside the periphery of the disks 102, 120'.

[0017]FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a disk drive after the turbulence
reduction plate is placed between the disks, according to an example
embodiment described herein. FIG. 4 is a top view of a disk drive after
the turbulence reduction plate is placed between the disks, according to
an example embodiment described herein. The turbulence reduction plate
200 is shown as hidden lines in FIG. 4. FIGS. 3 and 4 show an
intermediate assembly associated with the disk drive 100. The
intermediate assembly includes fastening the turbulence reduction plate
200 to the base 104 after placing the turbulence reduction plate 200
between the first disk 120 and the second disk 120'. This may also be
referred to as merging the turbulence reduction plate 200 with the disk
stack. The disk stack is the first disk 120, an intermediate spacer
between the disks and the second disk 120' as clamped to the spindle 122.
Now referring to FIGS. 1-4, the intermediate assembly as well as the
method of rotating the turbulence reduction plate 200 to a position
between the disks 120, 120' will be further detailed. As shown in FIGS. 3
and 4, the turbulence reduction plate 200 is positioned between the first
disk 120 and the second disk 120'. All portions of the turbulence
reduction plate 200 are within the footprint of the base 104 of the
housing 102. The turbulence reduction plate 200 is also attached to the
base 104 of the housing 102 at the mounting areas or mounting openings
211, 212, 213. Fasteners 221, 222, 223 pass through openings 201, 202,
203 in the turbulence reduction plate 200. The fasteners 221, 222, 223
then engage the mounting openings 211, 212, 213. In one embodiment, the
fasteners 221, 222, 223 are threaded and engage threaded mounting
openings 211, 212, 213. The turbulence reduction plate 200 has a
thickness which is less than the space between the first disk 120 and the
second disk 120' as mounted on the spindle 122. The turbulence reduction
plate 200 is positioned to leave a small space between the first disk 120
and the turbulence reduction plate 200, and to leave a small space
between the second disk 120' and the turbulence reduction plate 200. The
spaces are small enough to substantially reduce or prevent turbulent flow
of the air within the drive 100. The turbulence reduction plate 200 can
be rotated on a pivot point 204 (shown in FIG. 4). In another embodiment,
one of the fasteners 211 can be placed into threaded opening 201 to form
a pivot point.

[0018]The turbulence reduction plate 200 is formed from a non magnetic
material such as aluminum or industrial grade nylon. The turbulence
reduction plate 200 is also grounded to the housing 102 so as to
substantially prevent a buildup of a static charge on the turbulence
reduction plate 200. As a result, this reduces or substantially
eliminates an electrostatic discharge from occurring between the
turbulence reduction plate 200 and one of the first disk 120 or the
second disk 120' or both.

[0019]FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a disk drive after the turbulence
reduction plate 200 is placed between the disks 120, 120' and with the
cover 106 about to be installed, according to an example embodiment
described herein. Attaching the cover 106 to the base 104 of the housing
102 encloses the disks 120, 120' and the actuator 130 and the transducing
heads 146 (there is generally one transducing head per major surface of
the disk 120 and per major surface of the disk 120'). As can be seen,
attaching the cover also includes enclosing the turbulence reduction
plate 200 as well as the fasteners 221, 222, 223 and the mounting areas
211, 212, 213 associated with the housing 104. Attaching the cover 106 to
the base 104 also is referred to as forming the head disk enclosure.

[0020]FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a method 600 for assembling a disk drive,
according to an example embodiment. The method 600 for assembling a disk
drive includes placing a first disk onto a spindle of a disk drive 610,
placing a disk spacer onto the spindle of the disk drive 611, placing a
second disk onto the spindle of the disk drive 612, and clamping the
first disk and the second disk to the spindle 614. The second disk is
spaced from the first disk. The method 600 also includes placing a
turbulence reduction plate on a pivot associated with the housing 616,
and rotating the turbulence reduction plate into a position between the
first disk and the second disk on the spindle 618. The pivot is
positioned outside the periphery of the first disk and second disk. The
method also includes attaching the turbulence reduction plate to the
housing 620, installing an actuator assembly within the housing 621, and
attaching a cover to the housing 622.

[0021]FIG. 7 is a flow chart of a method 700 for assembling a disk drive,
according to another example embodiment. The method 700 for assembling a
disk drive includes placing disks and spacer on a spindle 710, and
pivoting a turbulence reduction plate to a position between the disks on
the spindle 712. Pivoting a turbulence reduction plate to a position
between the disks on the spindle 712 includes placing the turbulence
reduction plate on a pivot associated with the housing. In one
embodiment, pivoting the turbulence reduction plate to a position between
the disks on the spindle 712 includes partially attaching the turbulence
plate to a mounting area of the housing for the disk drive. In another
embodiment, pivoting the turbulence reduction plate to a position between
the disks on the spindle 712 includes pivotally attaching the turbulence
reduction plate to a first mounting opening of a housing for the disk
drive. The method 700 further includes attaching the turbulence reduction
plate to a second mounting opening of the housing 714. Attaching the
turbulence reduction plate to a second mounting opening of the housing
714 also includes aligning an opening in the turbulence reduction plate
with the second mounting opening, and placing a fastener through the
opening in the turbulence plate and the second mounting opening. The
method 700 may also include attaching the turbulence reduction plate to a
housing for the disk drive 714 which includes placing fasteners through
openings in the turbulence reduction plate and into corresponding
mounting openings in the housing. The mounting openings of the housing
are inside an outer periphery of the housing. The method also includes
enclosing the disks and the turbulence reduction plate 718. This may
include placing a cover onto the housing.

[0022]FIG. 8 is a partial cross section view of the assembled disk drive
800, according to an example embodiment. The disk drive 800 includes a
base 804 of the housing 802, and a spindle 822 attached to the housing
802. A first disk 820 and a second disk 820' are attached to the spindle
822. A set of mounting openings, one of which is shown as mounting
opening 812, is placed in the housing near the periphery of where the
first disk 820 and the second disk 820' are attached to the spindle 822.
The disk drive 800 also includes a turbulence reduction plate 200
positioned between the first disk 820 and the second disk 820'. The disk
drive also includes a cover 806 attached to the housing. In one
embodiment, the housing 804 and the cover 806 form a clam shell head disk
enclosure. The housing 802 of the disk drive 800 includes a pivot
attached to the housing 802, which, in one embodiment, is a fastener
within a mounting area associated with the housing 802. The turbulence
mounting plate 200 is shaped to rotate about the pivot to a position
between the disks 820, 820' without touching the first disk 820, the
second disk 820' or the spindle 822 during the rotation or at the final
assembled position. A seal 840 is placed between the cover 806 and the
base 804 of the housing 802. The seal 840 substantially seals the
interface between the cover 806 and the base 804.

[0023]A printed circuit board (not shown) may be attached to the exterior
of the chassis or housing base 804. The printed circuit board (PCB) may
include four major electronic components, so-called system LSIs. The LSIs
are mounted on the printed circuit board (PCB). The system LSIs are a
head disk controller (HDC) 510, a read/write channel IC 520, a
microprocessor unit (MPU) 530, and a motor driver IC 540. These control
many aspects of the operation of the disk drive 800.

[0024]The MPU is a control unit of a driving system and includes a read
only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), a central processing unit
(CPU) 536, and a logic processing unit. Firmware (FW) for the logic
processing circuit is saved to the ROM. Firmware includes a set of
instructions executable by the MPU to control portions of the disk drive.

[0025]The foregoing description of the specific embodiments reveals the
general nature of the invention sufficiently that others can, by applying
current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt it for various
applications without departing from the generic concept, and therefore
such adaptations and modifications are intended to be comprehended within
the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments.

[0026]It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed
herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.
Accordingly, the invention is intended to embrace all such alternatives,
modifications, equivalents and variations as fall within the spirit and
broad scope of the appended claims.